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    Wolfenstein 3D

    Game » consists of 12 releases. Released May 05, 1992

    Considered by many to be the progenitor of the first-person shooter genre, Wolfenstein 3D is a 1992 first-person action game that pits the player, as Allied spy William "B.J." Blazkowicz, against the might of Nazi Germany.

    Always Turn Left

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    mfpantst

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    #1  Edited By mfpantst

    Ok this just suddenly popped in my head and I got to thinking, i wonder if this is really what you're supposed to do or not.  Anyways, back in the day when I was like 8, I played alot of Woflenstein 3D (I think years 8-12 were the Wolfenstein years).  And I learned alot about how to play video games from that specific game.  One thing (which I have subsequently forgotten about until now) was map navigation.  In that, the Wolfenstein 3-D I played had no map.  And the mnemonic device I used to get through levels was the following:
    Always Turn Left

    I believe my mom's second husband taught me this.  He said if you always turn left whenever possible you will find the end of the level and get everything you need by the time you reach the elevators.  And he meant literally.  That is if you instead of acting like your character was a person, you acted like your character was a line that follows the leftmost wall.  You follow this line and whenever there's a door you presume this line goes through the door and around the room or next area to the left.  Amazingly this worked really well.  There are some maps (actually the end of the first level is one) where going left makes you skip stuff, so you  have to deviate.

    Anyways- this is my point.  Most games with levels these days provide you a map.  Woflenstein 3-D did not.  And my navigation method began with Always turn Left and improvised from there.  This was so pervasive that early map systems in games (Descent) were hard for me to use because I was so trained to always turn left.  To this day, whenever a game has a detailed map interface in the menu system (splinter cell, hitman) I have a really hard time using the map and end up acting like no map exists whereas a game with no map or a simplified interface (battlefield, crysis, portal, HL, Modern Warfare) I tend to have an easier time getting around.  The L4D's I actually have a hard time navigating and tend to fall back to always turning left, interestingly enough. 

    So anyways- how did you navigate old school game's maps?

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    WoodenPlatypus

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    #2  Edited By WoodenPlatypus


    Get drunk. Play the game. Complete it.

     

    Boss mode.

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